The third week of June started off with the arrival of Jesse and Cyra in Ganta. They had been in Monrovia since their initial arrival working closely with Bakary on prep work for their summer tasks. It was great to finally meet the faces of the interns I have had so much contact with over the past three months.
Cyra started out the work week with a Family Planning training for all staff. She did an incredible job despite how personal and sensitive some of the issues of Family Planning can- especially upon arrival to a new country and in front of 35 people you have just met! We then moved on to the refresher CBIO training by Ashley, as the project as a few new staff, we thought it important to provide a training on our guiding methodology so they could understand as well.
The week finished out with the Listening Group Discussion training, a new tool that we are going to use in Care Group meetings. This training truly engaged all the staff. Behavioral change communication and its different methods are most definitely one of their main interests. Unfortunately for this training, the interns and I were strongly encouraged by Bakary to conduct a short drama in front of everyone. Although we protested at first, we gave in, and we all had a great time “performing” and being laughed at by the staff. They even developed a drama during the training very similar to ours which was much much better and took them about a quarter of the time to create!
Leah McManus, Program Associate
